It's Always Been You by Jessica Scott Page B

ma’am.”
    “What are you doing here, Teague?” Denis asked. “You’re supposed to be in the motor pool conducting inventories.”
    Ben’s smile was ice cold, his fingers tight around a dinged-up water bottle as he slipped his phone back into his pocket with his other hand. “Commander business,” he said quietly.
    The tension between the two men was palpable. Something physical and something real.
    She wondered at the history between them. But this wasn’t the time to ask. Ben didn’t take his eyes off the skinny major as Denis shuffled out of the office, leaving a trail of grease hanging in the air after him.
    “Nice timing,” she said, gesturing toward the chair recently vacated by her new BFF. “What’s the story there?”
    “That would take a hell of a lot longer than we’ve got right now.” Ben glanced over his shoulder and halfway out of the office to make sure Denis was gone. “He was my commander, once upon a war. Between us girls, you might want to watch your back with that one. He’s a nasty little fucker.”
    Olivia chewed on Ben’s words for a moment. “Oh, I already figured that out.”
    Ben shook his head as he sat and folded his hands in his lap. “No, I don’t think you’re following. He’s well connected and he could easily start something at echelons well above your pay grade that could get you into a world of shit.”
    Olivia’s skin went cold. She tucked that little piece of information away someplace safe. Maybe she’d need it, maybe she wouldn’t, but she wasn’t one to brush off advice. She reached for her water bottle.
    “Well, I guess I’ll just have to watch my back. I appreciate the warning.” She twisted the lid off her water bottle. “What can I help you with?”
    He tapped his finger against the lip of his bottle. “I have a problem.”
    She waited for him to continue, not wanting to poison the well by jumping to conclusions. Warmth spread over her skin as she sat with him. Recollection of that morning’s earlier conversation hung in the air between them. A jagged scar that she’d wanted to trace with her fingers. Her gaze dropped to his belly, covered now by his uniform. Scars like that changed a man. What had he been like before his body had been broken by the war?
    What had
he
been like?
    She looked up to find him watching her. Heat rose inside her, heat that she had no business feeling toward this man. She licked her bottom lip, wishing that things were simpler. That she wasn’t a bundle of screwed up everything, and that he wasn’t as dark and wounded as she suspected he was.
    She couldn’t save him.
    No matter how much she might want to take away his pain, his memories were his own.
    Still, that knowledge didn’t stop her from wanting to soothe some of the jagged pain she saw in his eyes.
    She needed some distance, and some perspective on the complicated man in front of her.
    She let the silence stand between them until he found the words he needed.
    “Sergeant First Class Escoberra.”
    Olivia swallowed but stayed quiet. Cold washed over her skin. She couldn’t afford to jump to conclusions but damn it was hard. “What about him?”
    He turned the cap on his bottle. On. Off. “Is there any way to speed this thing up?”
    Olivia sank back in her chair. He wasn’t asking her to break the rules. At least she didn’t think he was. “What’s going on?”
    Ben’s eyes flashed darkly. Just a moment before he looked away, down at his hands. “I can’t go into that with you,” he said quietly. “But it would mean a hell of a lot to me if we could get his case wrapped up. I don’t care how it ends but we can’t have this one dragging out forever and a day.”
    There was a warning there. A plea. “There’s little we can do until Child Protective Services finishes their investigation,” she said quietly.
    Ben studied the water bottle in his hands.
    “You still want to defend him?” Olivia couldn’t keep the incredulity from her voice.
    Ben